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Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism
 
 

Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism (Paperback)

by Paul Boghossian (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 148 pages
  • Publisher: Clarendon Press (11 Oct 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0199230412
  • ISBN-13: 978-0199230419
  • Product Dimensions: 20 x 13.2 x 1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 220,965 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #10 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Philosophy > Schools of Thought > Relativism
  • See Complete Table of Contents

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Product Description

Simon Blackburn, Times Literary Supplement, 1 September 2006
'a thoroughly professional contribution' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
If only Boghossian's eminently reasonable book were required reading for every freshman considering entrance into the humanities... (Ars Disputandi )

...lucid and effective ... (Times Literary Supplement )

This is a great book for a seminar or discussion group. And its about time that someone wrote it. Happily, it was someone with Boghossians clarity, verve, and panache. (Graham Priest, Review of Metaphysics )

...this is an important book that should be widely read. (Philosophers' Magazine )

This is a book that can be read in an afternoon and thought about for a lifetime. (Wall Street Journal )

...a tour de force: subtle and originalbut accessible enough to be read by anyone with an interest in the subject. (Wall Street Journal )

In both subject matter and execution, this book promises to become a small classic of philosophical analysis. (Choice )

For all its sophistication and erudition, the writing is remarkably clear, free of specialized jargon, and accessible to nonspecialist readers. (Choice )

...the book does a fine job of assessing in brief compass the sort of relativism/constructivism advocated by Rorty and his fellow travelers, and Boghossian's sophisticated and careful arguments against that Rortian view are often ingenious and invariably telling. (Harvey Siegel, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 25/07/07 )

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism
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Customer Reviews

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3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars With such enemies, who needs friends?, 14 Nov 2006
A clearheaded critique of certain social constructivist tendencies would be a welcome contribution to the philosophical debate; unfortunately this book does not provide it. It consistently overstates the importance or relevance of some of the more outlandish ideas of individual 'relativists' and/or 'constructivists', thereby neglecting the bulk of the literature proposing entirely reasonable forms of 'social constructivism' (though they are rarely advertised under this label). Lack of familiarity breeds contempt, and so it should come as a no surprise that Boghossian makes little attempt to give the positions he criticises a charitable interpretation. What is more worrying, however, is that some of Boghossian's arguments are outright sloppy. (In some cases, he exploits an equivocation between an assertion of entailment and one of identity in order to force an argument to work -- hardly an argumentative move worthy of a philosopher of Boghossian's standing...) In the preface, Boghossian writes that he tried to make the book accessible beyond the narrow circle of academic philosophers. While this is a laudable goal, I am doubtful whether it suffices to justify (to mention but one example) delegating to a mere footnote problems with, e.g., the tripartite definition of knowledge (p. 16) -- when it is the stalemate arising from just such problems which has prompted many philosophers to seek a departure from traditional epistemology, e.g. along the lines of social epistemology (and for this one need not turn to Latour, Boghossian's favorite bogeyman, but to figures such as Edward Craig...) Finally, the timing for Boghossian's book is awkward. Any discerning observer of contemporary epistemology should by now have noticed that there is considerable rapprochement between different philosophical traditions, an increased awareness of the role of values in epistemology, new constructive uses of history in philosophy, all of which contributes to the project of philosophical inquiry rather than detracting from it. In summary, to paraphrase Bernard Williams, a work in philosophy may be unimaginative not because it fails to be clever but because it misses the point. Boghossian's book is a clear instance of that.
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5 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, 18 April 2006
Boghossian does an excellent job of dispersing a few popular but entirely gaseous philosophical ideas, exposing the fallacies or sheer lack of argument underlying much of them. There is a certain amount of technical language but that shouldn't prevent non-philosophers from following the argument.
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